Top 12 of 2012

The year is almost gone, and I personally can't believe how fast it went! I swear that the older my babies get, the fast the time seems to go...so that's why its nice, to look back over the last year and remember all of those amazing moments, whether they be a special occasion, or the perfect everyday moments.

So, I thought I would jump on the wagon and do a favorites of 2012 post, below you will find my top 12 projects of the past year, in no particular order, cause don't think I can narrow down that much. lol

Looking forward to seeing what 2013 has in store!

Hope you all have a happily blessed new year, and take the time to create something you love!

Sketchy Thursdays...and an announcement

One of the first challenge blogs that I found and quickly grew to love was Sketchy Thursdays. I was inspired every week by the fabulous sketches and the amazing work of the design team. I remember my excitement when I would get chosen as a Fav for the week, and how extremely shocked and honored I was when chosen to be a part of their team. Through this blog I forged friendships with wonderful ladies, that I probably would never had the opportunity to know otherwise. I am so sad to say that this will be my last layout for Sketchy Thursdays. The wonderful ladies, Diana, Heidi, and Julie have decided that its time, and while I am very saddened by their decision, I understand that the work that must go into keeping up with a blog like Sketchy Thursdays must get overwhelming at times. So I wish them the best of luck in whatever their next steps in this crafty world are, and want them to know that they can't get rid of my that easy, lol, I will continue to follow these ladies for their amazing friendship and the inspiration they always give! Make sure you head over to the blog and read the official announcement.
Here is the fabulous sketch that we are working with this week:

Love it, as usual, and know I will go back to this one again and again! Here is the layout I made to go along with the sketch. I used the fabulous Button Box kit from Scraptastic Club, where I am guest designing this month!



I hope you take time to head over to Sketchy Thursdays, and play along this week!

Have a blessed day and create something you love
 

Long time no post

Does anyone else feel like this month has flown by at super speed, and that hardly any of the things you wanted to get accomplished this month got done? I really hope I am not alone in this! I had so many plans for this month, both crafty and otherwise, and I don't know that one of them actually came together all the way for me. My hubby says that I worry too much about the plan, and I know he's right, but sometimes I just wish it would go according to my play one day! lol :)

With all of that being said, we had a fabulous month...we were crazy some days with all the running around we had to do, but other days, we did nothing but lay around in our pajamas all day long! :) I hope that the holidays and the time leading up to them were fabulous for you all and that you got time to just sit back and enjoy a little, I did this year, probably for the first year in a long time...and I loved it! Maybe Derek is right when he says I need to let my plans go...don't tell him I said that though! hehe :)

Anyways, I did finally get some time to sit down and get crafty and I have a layout to share with you today that goes along with the new Sketchy Thursdays sketch. I definitely switched this up quite a bit and made it mine. Here is my layout:

I love this picture of my sweet girl :) I am pretty happy with this layout...I feel like there is something missing, not sure what though...any suggestions?? Would love to hear them! :)

Here is the sketch for this week, another fabulous one! :)

Hop on over to Sketchy Thursdays to get all the details, and I hope that you get time to play along! Have fun with this one and make something you love! :)

Be back soon with some more craftiness, I promise! I am going to really try and step it back up after the first of the year...more posting, more projects, and I always love a good giveaway or two! :)

One more thing before I go...I am debating on Project Life for 2012...would love if you all would post any thoughts or advice from your own experiences!

Have a blessed weekend! :)

Life Documented

Every year I try and make my mom a calendar for Christmas. She is not a scrapper, so I like to make her a full size calendar that she can turn into a scrapbook at the end of the year. I am getting a pretty late start this year, so hoping I get it finished by Christmas! Eeek...that is not very far away! Yikes, I better get busy!!!
For the calendar this year, I am using the Year-O-Graphy line by Simple Stories...I think this is a beautiful line, and it is actually making this a fairly easy project for me.

When I saw this weeks Sketchy Thursdays sketch, I thought it would be super cute as the cover page for my calendar! I actually really love this sketch, and will probably mix it up a bit and use it on a few other pages throughout my calendar.

Here is the sketch for this week:



Very fun sketch with so many possibilities!! Make sure you head on over to Sketchy Thursdays and see the amazing inspiration that the design team has for you this week, and get all the detail to play along for you chance at a fabulous prize!!

Have a great week, be blessed, and create something you love! :)

So Cute...So Stinkin Cute

Its Thursday, so you know what that means...a fabulous new sketch is up at Sketchy Thursdays!
Here is my layout based on this weeks sketch:

This little stinker...she had some fun one day while we were out shopping with the new make up Mamaw bought her...I couldn't help but laugh, she was so proud of herself. :)

Here is the sketch for this week:



Very fun and versatile sketch! As you can see, I switched it up quite a bit, but you can definitely still see some elements from the sketch, and there are so many possibilities with this sketch! I know I will use it again and again.

Hope you take the time to head over and join in this week for a chance at our fabulous prize!



Favorite Things

My three favorite people in the whole world! :) I love this photo of Derek and the girls, and when I saw this weeks sketch, I knew it was perfect for the photo, I have been wanting to scrap it since I took it, but it never seemed to fit anywhere, every time I tried scrapping it it just wasn't right...does that ever happen to you? I find it happens alot, I get my heart set on a certain photo and a certain layout, and by the time I am finished its nothing like I thought :) This one though, once I got it going, came together so easily and exactly like I wanted! :)

Lots of Authentiques Uncommon on this layout...I love the colors in that collection...I threw in a little Studio Calico Classic Calico wood grain to "man it up" a little. :)

Here is the fabulous sketch that was the start of this layout:

Make sure you head on over to Sketchy Thursdays, and not only get inspired, but play along for your chance at a FABULOUS prize from The Paper Bakery! They are a fabulous kit club, I have tons of kits from them, and Sarah is such a sweetie! So you definitely want to get your chance in for this great prize...and look at that sketch! Who wouldn't be inspired?

Oh, and make sure you head this way Saturday! My post on the Little Yellow Bicycle Blog will be live!! My first post as a member of the Cycling Team!!! I still can't believe it!



New Sketchy Thursdays Reveal!!

Its Thursday, which means a new sketch is up over at Sketchy Thursdays!
This weeks sketch is another fabulous one!! :)

So many possibilities with this sketch! All that area for journaling, white space, anything and everything you can think of could come from this sketch.

Here is my take:

I decided to measure out some different angles strips instead of the torn edges. I really like the way this one came together...the only part I'm really not happy with is the journaling. I had thoughts of writing this wonderful letter, and then I get to that point and my mind goes blank, I can't find a spot where I like the journaling, it just turned into a big mess...so I just kept it short and sweet. Still not 100% happy with the placement, but you'll have that I suppose. :)

Hope you all get a chance to play along this week!! Head on over to Sketchy Thursdays to get all of the details and play along for this weeks fabulous prize! :)

Sketchy Thursdays

It's Thursday, which means a new sketch is up over at Sketchy Thursdays, and it also means this is my first layout as a design team member! I am still kinda shocked that I am a part of this team with all of the other amazingly talented ladies. :)

Here is the fun sketch for this week:

Here is my take:

I want to say thanks to the talented Jen Jockisch for the title inspiration...she recently had a layout up at the Crate Paper blog, and sisterhood was her title, the minute I saw it I knew I wanted to use it for these photos. :)

I switched the sketch up just a little bit, which just shows how very versatile this sketch is...hope you find time to join in this week!! Head over to Sketchy Thursdays and see what the rest of the design team created, and join in for your chance at this weeks fabulous prize!!

Scrappy Weekend!!

This was a very busy weekend for me, my LSS held a weekend long retreat...I had so much fun!! Its the first one I have been to, and I went with such high expectations of getting so much done, next year I will know better!! LOL! I met some amazing ladies, and we definitely talked and laughed much for that we scrapped. I did however, manage to get a few layouts in....and came home with lots of inspiration!
First up is my layout based on this week's sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. When I first saw the sketch I was a little intimidated, kinda out of the norm for me,but the sponsor of the retreat this weekend was Authentique, so one of our challenges was to make a layout using their products, I immediately knew what I wanted to do.

I knew these photos of my silly ladies would be perfect for the Uncommon line from Authentique, and this week Sketchy Thursdays not only had an amazing sketch, but the teamed up with Scrapfit to give us the theme of "friendship" to work with, and you can tell by looking at these two that they are definitely best buds! :)

My next layout is for the first challenge I am hosting over at Scrap-Friendzy. Our theme this month is Design Star, so I gave an inspiration photo for the ladies to work with:



I just loved everything about is room! The colors , the mix matched goodies, and mainly the fun placement of the frames and the word "read"

Here is my layout based off of the photo, using the fun Summer Days collection by Simple Stories.

Lots of fun challenges over at Scrap-Friendzy, and the ladies are all super sweet. Would love to have some of you hop over and play along!! :)

Off to work now, and its going to be quite the day...I get the lovely job of restocking and unpacking everything from the retreat this weekend! 



A Hot Mess

My youngest, poor thing, has a small issue with her jeans ( well, really anything she wears on the bottom that isn't stretchy), see she is the cutest little thing ever, but unfortunately, the poor thing inherited her Mama's booty, lol, so the jeans don't want to stay up on it. I couldn't resist snapping some pictures of her little booty on a recent trip to the park, and of course they had to make their way onto a layout. :)

I tell you this much, I wish it looked as cute on me, as it does on here! LOL!

I used the 9.8 sketch from Sketchy Thursdays on this one..when I saw it I knew it was perfect for these photos.

Had fun with this one! :)
Supply list:
Happy Days by Echo Park
Hot Dog Mister Hueys
Bluegrass Mister Hueys
Polka Dot Brad: Design by Diana

Off to a retreat that my LSS is having this weekend...3 days of uninterrupted scrapping!! Can't wait!!! :)

Imagination

My girls have the best imaginations, I don't remember playing and pretending and just enjoying life when I was younger as they do. I feel alot of this comes from their absolute love for books. These girls love reading and looking at pictures in any and every book they can find. AND I LOVE IT!!! :) I am so thankful that they have this desire to learn and grow and imagine. I hope they keep it forever! :)

When they posted the Guest Design Team challenge over at Sketchy Thursdays and I saw the sketch, and that the theme needed to have something to do with reading, I knew exactly what I wanted the layout to be about, our messy book shelves and random piles of books throughout the house. My mom would die if she saw my house sometimes, lol, but I don't care. I love walking down the hallway and seeing the girls laying there with a pile of books "reading" them to each other. Anyways, lol, I used those pics for my layout...the piles and the mess, and I put them together with some Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey, and came up with this beauty, that I must say I am pretty proud of...it's really pretty simple, but the colors and patterns are so far out there for me that I feel like I accomplished something major. LOL!

I have some stamping, some embossing, some misting, die cutting, I went a little crazy on this one, but I love it! :)

You have til Saturday to enter the GDT challenge! Go check it out...also check out the design team call they are having...I'm seriously debating!! :)

Remember, blog hop this weekend!!! :)

Have a blessed day!!

~ Amanda

Scrappy Happy Day!! :)

Today was a very productive day for me!! I finished 3, yes 3, layouts!! :) The girls were having so much fun playing with their new zuzu pet babies, that they weren't interested in me at all. That doesn't happen very often, lol, so I took advantage of it! :)

I loved the Sketchy Thursdays sketch this week, so I had to play along there. I changed it up a little bit, and only used one photo instead of the three they had...I am so happy with the way this one turned out!

I also wanted to play along with the sketch challenge over at Artful Delight. I switched this sketch up a little bit also. I had lots of fun on this one playing with my new Happy Days collection by Echo Park!! :)

Sorry the picture quality on these two isn't that great. Its a cloudy day here, and I couldn't get a good picture for anything by the window. So took them outside, and then I couldn't get them to line up straight, and the colors are still a tad off, but you get the idea. :)

Hope everyone has a blessed week! We are off to the park to enjoy a little more freedom before Miss E heads back to preschool! :)

Don't forget the blog hop is this weekend!! :) Hope you can all hop on by! ;)

~ Amanda

Christmas in...August??

I was going through the pics on my computer yesterday, seeing what needed to be moved where, and I came across the ones of my oldest at her preschool Christmas party. The quality is absolutely horrible, but I don't even notice, all I can focus on is that smile. Pure happiness!! She was so excited that Santa was coming, and it was the first party she had had a school. So I decided that it was time to get them on a page.

I tried to kinda step out of my comfort zone on this one. I thought these Jenni Bowlin papers were fun for this page. Even though they aren't Christmas themes, I thought the red and black went nicely with the photos. I threw in a little Crate Paper, Girl's Paperie...which I think all coordinates nicely together. I am actually really happy with the way this layout turned out...its kinda busy, which isn't my norm at all, but I love it. :)

I used the 7.28 sketch from Sketchy Thursdays and I am also entering this in the workout at ScrapFit "Put a Banner on it"

I would also like to share this layout I did awhile page using a PageMaps sketch. I can't seem to find the sketch that I used, but I got it off of the SCT Blog.

I just noticed that this is crooked...hmm...hopefully its just the photo and not the actual layout! LOL!

I am so in love with the color combo right now!

The papers are all from MME, alphas Studio Calico.

Hope everybody has a very blessed Wednesday!

~Amanda